The Hum

26 January 2011–13 February 2011

The special bond between a young woman and a tiger in Zoologische Garten Berlin is the subject of one part of a new, collaborative art work between Sheffield-based artist Chloë Brown and Ines Lechleitner, who lives in Berlin. The work results from their shared interest in animal/human studies and was made during their LoBe residency in July 2010.

For the residency the artists shared a visual and sonic conversation, where the Zoologische Garten - the culturally charged site of one the worlds' first zoos - became central to the resulting work. Lechleitners' Urban Birds is a polyphony based on the unlikely proximity of various bird species from around the world accompanied and sometimes overshadowed by the sound of nearby trains and planes. Dialogue - Francolinus Francolinus is a rhythmic dialogue between two birds of the same species. Picking up this theme Brown's video Dialogue - Panthera Leo captures and extends the moment when two lions roar, whilst Gorilla Gorilla was her response to Lechleitners' black and white photograph Dos Gris, which is of an aging Silverback Gorilla in the Stuttgart Zoo. The Hum is a collaboration between the artists based on the encounter with a young woman in the Predator House, focusing on her relationship with one of the tigers and her longing to touch the creature.